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Friday, January 24, 2014

Gimme Shelter

Review by Pamela Zoslov

It's really hard to criticize a
filmmaker whose previous work includes a short called “Puppies for
Sale,” which sounds excruciatingly cute (a young boy chooses a
handicapped puppy at a pet store, and everyone, including the pet
store owner, learns a valuable lesson). Writer/director Ron Krauss
has his heart in the right place, having spent an entire year in a
shelter for pregnant teens. That experience was the basis of his new
film, GIMME SHELTER, which has almost nothing in common with the
Maysles brothers' Altamont documentary of the same name.

Well-meaning it is, with heartwarming
messages about survival, family, love and faith. Vanessa Hudges, an
alumna of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, plays Apple, not the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow, but the 16-year-old daughter of a drug-addicted
prostitute, June, played ferociously by Rosario Dawson. Apple, whose
name is really Agnes but prefers the nickname bestowed on her by the
father she never met, runs away from her abusive, drug-addled mom and
embarks on a hard life on the streets. She finds her way to the
suburban New Jersey mansion owned by her father, Tom, played by the
constantly misused Brendan Fraser, where she is promptly handcuffed
by police for skulking around the yard. Dad is a Wall Street
executive but also a sweetheart, pinstripe suits notwithstanding. He
waves away the cops and agrees to let Apple stay for a while, to the
chagrin of his pert wife, Joanna (French actress Stephanie Szostak),
who can't countenance this scruffy revenant from her husband's past.

It turns out that Apple is pregnant,
which repulses Joanna so much she tries to ditch Apple during a
clinic appointment. Tom and Joanna push Apple to have an abortion, so
she runs away. Back on the streets, all kinds of bad stuff happens to
Apple. She eats out of Dumpsters. A pimp (stereotypically black)
tries to recruit her, but she hijacks the pimp's ride instead,
crashes it and lands in a hospital. Life on the streets! In the
hospital, Apple encounters a magically compassionate chaplain, Father
McCarthy, who not only sounds like James Earl Jones but is James
Earl Jones.

Still with me?
Good. Now, Apple has no use for Father McCarthy's “God,” who has
never helped her and let her suffer abuse in a series of foster
homes. “God don't care about me,” she says, and kicks the good
chaplain out of her hospital room. Apple's mom, with her
drug-yellowed teeth, puts on a tearful act about wanting her back,
but it turns out that's just for the welfare money (she's a Latina
version of the monster mom in PRECIOUS). Father James Earl
Jones gets Apple placed in a faith-based shelter for young unwed
mothers, run by the saintly Kathy (Ann Dowd). We know she's saintly
because the home's walls feature photos of Kathy with Mother Teresa
and, er, Ronald Reagan. The character is based on Kathy DiFiore,
founder of Several Sources Shelters, the apparent reason the movie
was made.

There are things
that are quite good in the movie — it is very competently directed and
features strong, emotive performances, especially by Miss Hudgens. (Director Krauss is superior to Writer Krauss.) However, the
ethnic stereotyping is disturbing: the aforementioned
African American pimp, Dawson's histrionic Latina prostitute, so
tough she spits in faces and wields a razor blade between her teeth.
Furthermore, the narrative, after a promising start, turns flabby,
and fails to explore some of the interesting elements suggested. For instance, what was going on all those years ago between future Wall Street Dad and
future Street Whore June? An ill-fated "West Side Story" romance? We'd like to know, but all we find out is that
they “went out a few times.”

Apple is
transformed by the compassion and camaraderie among the other
residents at the shelter, though the process by which this happens isn't entirely clear.
Some of the girls resent the rules of the shelter, which require them
to do a lot of fundraising, stuffing envelopes and holding posters of
their babies' cute faces to solicit donations at church. Are they
being exploited? At least one resident girl thinks so, but the story
doesn't go there. Eventually, Apple, chastened by motherhood,
realizes that her shelter “sisters” are the only family she's
ever really had. And we, the audience, have the feeling that GIMME SHELTER
isn't so much a drama about a troubled teen as a well made
anti-abortion tract/infomercial. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.